This invention relates to a semiconductor-laser-pumped total-solidified tunable pulse laser that uses a titanium-added sapphire monocrystal, which is employed, for instance, in the fields of optical measurement, optical medical treatment, and optical processing which utilize coherent light.
Heretofore, in a tunable solid-state laser using a titanium-doped sapphire (Ti:Al.sub.2 O.sub.3) single crystal, a pumping light source for laser oscillation has mainly been an argon laser, the second harmonic wave of a flash-lamp-pumped YAG laser, the second harmonic wave of a diode-pumped YLF laser, a copper vapor laser, or a flash lamp. In these cases, the pumping sources are gas lasers or lamps, and therefore the laser devices are inevitably bulky. Furthermore, the service lives of the laser devices depend on those of the lamps used in them, and the maintenance of them is rather troublesome. In addition, the laser devices are not always high in oscillation efficiency.
A method has been proposed in the art in which a pulse laser oscillation is carried out by pumping a titanium-doped sapphire single crystal with the second harmonic wave of a diode-pumped YLF laser, or the second harmonic wave of a diode-pumped YAG laser. However, for example, in the case where the diode-pumped YLF laser is employed, the output is not more than several micro-joules (.mu.j).